Max Baucus will continue to be health care law’s driving force

Sen. Max Baucus said Tuesday that he’ll retire at the end of 2014, but he could still deepen his already considerable imprint on federal health policy through the rollout of the health reform law this fall and the entitlement battles likely to rage as the debt ceiling deadline approaches this summer.

And Baucus’s departure could thrust the gavel of the Finance Committee into the hands of Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, a sometimes-rebellious Democrat, just one year after the health care reform law’s major programs go into effect.

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The Montana Democrat surprised much of Washington when word spread that he plans to leave the Senate at the end of his sixth term. He’ll depart with a health care legacy that includes writing much of the Affordable Care Act, having a significant role in creating the Medicare drug benefit and more than one confrontation with Democratic leadership.

Baucus told POLITICO in an interview Tuesday that he will “totally stand by” the health law.

“If we had not adopted the ACA, health care costs would be going up at a greater rate,” Baucus said. “My basic view is you gotta do what’s right.”

He added that he still believes that if you do what’s right, the public will eventually support you, even if it takes a long time. “That’s my view of health care reform,” he said.

The retirement announcement comes less than a week after Baucus got blowback from fellow Democrats after he said the health reform law risks becoming a “huge train wreck” if the Obama administration doesn’t set it up and administer it properly.

Baucus told POLITICO that he “probably misspoke.”

“That was interpreted as meaning I thought the bill was a train wreck. It’s not a train wreck. I was not referring to the bill. I was referring to if we don’t implement this thing correctly, then it’s going to be a train wreck.”

He said he spoke with Obama’s chief of staff “a couple times” since then on implementation.

But the “train wreck” comment became news. Later that same day, he got another barrage of criticism for being one of four Senate Democrats who helped sink universal background checks on the gun bill, a priority of President Barack Obama.

“I think he was upset about the way he’s been treated and frankly, he ought to be,” Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on Finance, told reporters shortly after the news broke Tuesday morning. He declined to reveal specifics of his conversation with Baucus.

“He clearly has taken some heat,” said Billy Wynne, a partner at Thorn Run Partners who worked for Baucus on Finance. “Washington has become increasingly hostile to moderates and deal makers. Sen. Baucus has been one of the most visible people in those areas.”

The week served as a stark portrait of what the next one-and-a-half years might look like for Baucus if he sought reelection: frequent bouts with other Democrats in Washington as he tried to win a Western state that supported Republican Mitt Romney in 2012.

But on Tuesday, Baucus said he didn’t want to have to focus exclusively on campaigning in the next year and a half.

“Deciding not to run for re-election was an extremely difficult decision,” Baucus said in a statement. “After thinking long and hard, I decided I want to focus the next year and a half on serving Montana unconstrained by the demands of a campaign.”